Re: Ren's Training

Sun Mar 13, 2016 9:16 am

Approved <3

Fri Jul 01, 2016 1:07 am

Ren was once again wandering through the village, after getting a paycheck for repairing the bridge at the edge of the village he had decided it was time for some shoping, he had fully restocked his pantry with all the food he needed for the next month, and had even had enough over to buy some new clothes. Ren was now strolling through the village streets with a brand new red and black ensemble that made him look quite charming, even if it did still fail to make him look like a guy. It was at this moment as ren was walking down the street in broad daylight, tossing his coin pouch in his hand jauntily, and enjoying his new profits that a shadowy figure covered by a dusty ragged old cloak rushed passed him grabbing the pouch as he ran. Ren stopped blinking incredulously, unable to believe what had just happened. Ren turned shouting out aloud “THIEF! Give me back my money!” and took off after the figure, ren might have had experience running through the forests or trying to attain and maintain his top speed in the training grounds, but that was an entirely different thing from attempting to navigate the convoluted walkways of the village whilst they are packed with busy villagers and merchants all trying to head in their own direction. Ren pushed through the crowd hurriedly trying to keep an eye on the man in front of him. I am not losing that money, it took all of yesterday to get and was way more effort than it should have been. “GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE YOU ROTTEN THIEF!” Ren called out in frustration rushing after the thief.

One of the downsides of living in a world filled with a myriad of different ninja, all with there own takes on how to use chakra to best suit their goals, is that even the most innocuous, the most basic of individuals, whether they be a beggar, a mischievous child, or a thief, that individual may very well possess skills that make them far more efficient at what they do than anyone might expect at a glance. The beggar may infact be skilled in genjutsu, capable of convincing all those that gazed upon them that they simply must help the poor limbless man lying on the side of the street before them; even though the man is perfectly fit and still possesses all his faculties. The mischievous child may very well be capable of using the ninja arts to hide from his pursuers after committing some heinous prank on them; and as for the thief, well the thief has the widest possibilities of all, the thief might be capable of utilising his chakra to outrun his victims, but running faster is simply the tip of the iceberg, a thief in the world of ninja must be capable of stealing, running, hiding, fighting, and manipulating better than the ninja and their charges that they are stealing from in the first place. The thief requires the skill to hide from his pursuers, the ability to change their appearance at a whim; whether this is through some feat of complex chakra manipulation, or merely the manifestation of skill with misdirection and swift concurrent clothing changes.

To steal from a ninja a thief has to be able to either acquire their profit from a mark quicker than the mark can notice and react, or to not even be noticed as they steal in the first place. The latter of these two methods can be accomplished, even without chakra manipulation, with some misdirection, some dexterity, and just a little bit of luck, but to pull of the former of the two methods is infact more difficult to accomplish than simply stealing undetected; the ability to steal without being noticed is something that can be acquired and developed with training and practice, but to steal with speed is a trait far more akin to a genetic advantage, it requires the body to be swift, the mind to be sharp, and for the will to be strong enough to handle the stress of being constantly pursued. It was this sort of man that Jonathan V Strouss was, Born in the slums of old kirigakure, before its fall, to an abusive mother that was both a drunkard and prostitute. Jonathan had been stealing to survive since he was five, so much so that he had made something of a name for himself in the underworld. Ren was just another mark for him, another ninja with too much money on their hands resulting from the villages ‘broken’ system that left the poor to become poorer and the rich to become richer. Ren may have been another mark to Jonathan, but little did he know that he had infact drawn the attention of some of the more powerful people in the world.

As Ren pursued the cloaked man before him in the streets of kirigakure, there were infact shadowed figures following them both from the rooftops, observing, waiting for the opportunity to strike. It was at this moment, as Ren saw his target getting further and further away, that he decided that he was going to have to try something to give him an advantage over the man before him. Thinking back Ren tried to remember if there was anything he had read that might have come in handy in this situation, Damnit he’s getting away, I need a way to move faster, Ren thought, oh i know, there was a technique I read about, what was it called, uhh oh right the Flicker Movement technique. Hmm, if i remember right I’m supposed to use my chakra to speed up my personal time flow, so i can move faster than everyone else, Huh I make it sound so easy, ugh this is so going to backfire isn’t it. Ren thought to himself as he worried over what was going to happen when he started messing with time, a prospect he had absolutely no experience in; Ren focused his chakra inside of him, allowing it to flow throughout his body as he prepared it to start shaping time and space. Alright Ren, you can do this, you’ve messed with space and time before right, this can't be that much different, you're just focusing on the time part rather than the space part right. At this moment ren felt a familiar voice chime in Ren the thief is getting away! You need to do whatever you were going to do now!. Kira’s voice echoed urgently in his mind. Okay, Okay, Okay, I get it, Damnit Kira I'm trying here but It’s not easy I've got very little idea what I’m doing okay! As he said this Ren performed the hand seals that he read in the Jutsu Encyclopedia he had been studying and released his chakra in order to perform the technique, at first Ren thought nothing happened, but after a few moments Ren realised that he wasn't moving anymore, he was putting the effort into moving, but he didn't actually move anywhere. Damnit, what is going on? Ren though until a moment later he moved forward in a flash, faster than he intended, until he reached what seemed to him to be about where he would have been if the technique he had used had not stopped him from moving and he had have kept running at the rate he had been before. Woah, what just happened, I moved so fast? Ren thought to himself, before he looked around, searching for the hooded man. Ren saw the man in the distance before him, Damnit, he’s so far away, I need to get this to work this time, Kira could you tell what I did wrong by any chance? Ren asked his friend urgently I’m not sure Ren, to be honest i don't understand half the things you do with your chakra these days, I did notice what happened when you released the jutsu though, it looked to me like you might have wound your time up backwards and then you jumped forward to where your time should have been, maybe you were on the right track but you were pulling your time the wrong way? Kira replied thoughtfully. Okay well it’s the best shot we’ve got, he’s almost out of our sight after all. Ren once again performed the hand seals for the flicker movement technique, before releasing his raging chakra in one last attempt to perform the technique, this time however instead of shaping his chakra in the way he had the first time, he tried to make it flow in the opposite manner. Ren felt a shudder as everyone seemed to move more slowly around him, he could see blur’s of the future selves of the people around him, helping him predict where everyone around him would be in a few moments, glancing behind him he saw the same blur trailing behind him, as he moved swiftly through the crowd, pivoting from one foot to the other like some sort of street dancer, as he avoided people and obstacles around him with the prenatural speed and foresight granted to him by the technique, a few people turned to look at the young boy in surprise as he rushed past them, a blur of himself following behind him. Good job Ren, you did it! Now go catch that blasted thief would you. Kira praised him for his success. Heh, thanks Kir I’ll teach him not to steal from us.

Jonathan V Strouss had never once in his long life of stealing, been out run by a single person, sure he had been caught in a few close calls and such, but only when he’d been cornered by a group of skilled pursuers, and besides who had not been stuck in awkward situations at least once or twice in his line of work. To be outrun by this man behind him, barely more than a teenager, Blasted ninja He thought to himself, I’m going to have to deal with him somehow. At this thought Jonathan V Strouss turned down a nearby alleyway and crouched behind a trashcan in order to wait for his pursuer, a dagger in his hand and a determined look on his face, he fully intended to kill the girl if he got the chance, but his objective was not so much to kill his pursuer as it was to throw him off guard and allow him a chance to escape.

It didn't take more than a few moments longer before Ren barreled around the corner of the alleyway in hot pursuit of his target, eyes darting from left to right as he quickly analyzed his surroundings for threats. Nothing stood out of course, and ren was in a hurry to catch up to his target, Ren bolted down the alleyway swearing to himself “Dammit he must have already gotten to the other side of the alley!” it was as he said this that he passed by the trash can, and felt a strong force barreling into his side, winding him. The thief had lunged for him, and scarcely missed him with his knife as he tackled Ren, throwing him to the ground. Ren was in a tight situation, he knew that, the thief would either throw him to the ground and escape, or he would try to stab Ren again, and ren didn't fancy either of those options. Placing his hands upon his assailants shoulders ren hastily performed the Mark Seal technique, placing the mark upon the back of the man that was about to throw him to the floor, then Ren tried something a little desperate, Ren formed the Rat hand sign behind the man’s back, Ren thrust his knee into the man’s stomach, intending to wind him, and then pushed himself back from the man, in an attempt to break the man’s hold around his waist. Fortunately for Ren, he succeeded, and landed back against the wall, as the man turned and ran for the street. It was then that Ren channeled his chakra in an effort to perform the technique that he had initiated a moment ago when he formed the rat seal behind the thief’s back. Ren focused his chakra and tried to remember what he had remembered reading in the jutsu encyclopedia. That book was the best 500 ryo i ever spent, Ren thought to himself, Now if I remember i need to try and focus on the target of the technique, and then use my chakra to create a localised space time vacuum to pull it towards me. Ren did just that, focusing his chakra and hoping for the best, there was a small gust of wind as the coin pouch that was hanging from the man’s belt flickered gold for a moment, but it was only for a moment, and then the technique failed. Damnit, Ren thought to himself He’s getting away, now I’m going to have to track him. Well good thing I placed a mark on him. Ren turned to the wall about to initiate the tree climbing, surface walking technique in order to run up the wall and onto the rooftops of the city, when he felt a sharp pain in his lower abdomen. Dammit he thought to himself, today’s been one kick in the head after another, he must have stabbed me when he tackled me, ugh this really hurts. Ren slumped to the ground in pain, the wound looked bad, really bad, he lightly poked at it, and saw a sliver of bone poking out. Shit, i think I’ve broken a rib too, If i don’t do something I’m going to bleed out here before anyone finds me. Dammit, come on think Ren, think, there has got to be something that you can do to fix this, a technique that you can use, or some knowledge that you have read… Wait that's it, knowledge that I have read, yes of course, why didn't i think of that earlier, I remember reading the section in my encyclopedia on medical ninjutsu, all i have to do is use the same techniques that they do! I mean sure I can’t do as good a job as them on my first go, but I think i can remember the basics, and that should be more than enough to heal over the wound, even if I can't fix it instantly. With that Ren began to work on performing the jutsu, Right what were the seals again, uhh Boar… then Rat.. then snake, that sounds right. Ren thought to himself as he gathered his chakra into the palms of his hands, and began to prepare himself to begin using the technique. Now, i have to do this slowly and carefully if i want to have a chance at surviving here, now then I should start by trying to stem the blood flow here. Ren thought as he began to apply his chakra to the wound, gently inserting it into the individual cells around the gaping hole in his side. Ren then proceeded to use this chakra to increase the cellular multiplication of his cells, causing them to reknit the muscle and vasculature tissue to some degree. It was slow work, Ren had to carefully take note of each and every action that he took, careful to not cause his cells to multiply too rapidly, and cause more damage to his body than he had originally. “Alrighty, well it looks like the bleeding's stopped at the very least, now all i need to do is deal with this gaping freaking hole in my side!” Ren coughed aloud. “Oh god, well this is just great” Looking down at his hands Ren saw a smattering of blood dripping from his fingers, there must have been some internal bleeding. Well i guess i can't do anything about that for now, in the meantime I am just going to have to finish healing up, and teach that guy a lesson. Now I am going to have to use this medical technique to try and get my skin to heal over, and then just hope i haven't damaged anything too serious. Ren slowly allowed his flesh to mend over as a result of the chakra permeating the surrounding layer of epidermal cells. It took a short while, but the wound looked almost as good as knew, you could infact barely see any sign of a scar. Okay good, now that that’s done, I can work on dealing with this broken rib Ren though as he began to work on repairing his damaged bone. Now then, the jutsu encyclopedia said that for the second stage of the medical technique there was a lot more complex functions that had to be taken into account, I guess bones are a lot more complex than skin and some basic muscle. Ren thought to himself as he lay there trying to figure out the best way to heal his rib. Well I guess the best place to start would be to set the rib, after all it's not going to get any better when I can still physically see the bulge from it sticking out of me… With that ren performed the Boar, Rat, and Snake signs and initiated the technique again, gathering his chakra into his hand until it began to glow a light with chakra, it was then that ren began to use his chakra to apply pressure to the rib to try to move it back into its natural place. “Ahhhhhhhhhrgh!” Ren shouted in immense pain as his rib scraped about two centimeters to the left, setting alight all of the surrounding nerves in his chest cavity. Dammit that hurts, there's no way I’m going to be able to set that Rib without passing out from the pain. I need some sort of way to dull the pain, huh if only I were drunk, Ren thought with a sense of black humor shining through now that he was in such a mortal situation, or even better if i had a technique that got me drunk. Ren chuckled to himself, the lack of bloodflow to his brain causing light headedness and euphoria. Or… Ren thought, Or I could use that other medical technique to convert my chakra into an Anesthetic, of course, that's brilliant! Now then what were the hand seals come on brain don't fail me now! Was it Boar, Hare, Monkey? No that doesn't sound right, but there was definitely a monkey at the end. Damnit, I have lost too much blood as it is, if i was at full capacity then I’d already have mastered the damn technique by now. Hare, then ox, then monkey, yes that's it okay now all i need to do is channel this properly Ren thought as five light aqua blue flames flickered gently into life on his fingertips, softly illuminating the dark, dank, decrepit, alleyway almost as if the light of fate was smiling upon ren, letting him know that today would not be his day to die. Fate of course had nothing to do with it, Ren’s blood loss had reached a point of hallucination and delusion, a fact that wouldn’t dawn upon him until a few days latter and quite a lot of time resting within his bed, if he lived that long that is.

As these thoughts fluttered back and forth through Ren’s mind he placed his hand upon his lower abdomen, carefully positioning his fingers to avoid any organs as best he could, in his current state asking ren to accurately do anything with his fingers was like asking a horse to play the devil’s trill with a mandolin whilst it rode a unicycle; in short well beyond impossible, but somehow Ren managed to at least miss anything particularly vital, ren thrust his fingertips into his body, piercing the skin as a watery red blood seeped out from around the wound.

Ren ran across to the edge of the rooftop and searched the crowded for the man he was tracking. Damnit, Damnit, Damnit, I can’t see him anywhere, fine then, I guess I’ll just have to do this then. Ren thought to himself, as he formed the Ram hand seal and initiated his recently learned mark tracking technique. Ren closed his eyes and began to search for the trademark chakra emanations that would allow him to identify where his target was. There! Ren thought, turning to the other side of the roof, he must have doubled back to try and avoid me, well I’m going to teach him a thing or two about messing with a ninja. Ren ran across the rooftops, jumping from one to the other as he followed his mark, making sure to ensure he maintained his stealth and secrecy, it wouldn't do after all to let the man know that he had infact failed to evade Ren before it was opportune. As ren got closer to the man he formed the rat symbol once again, and prepared his chakra to use the mass shift technique once again, Okay I guess i may as well practice this while I’m following him, Ren thought to himself as he performed the technique on a nearby loose stone from the street, the stone fluttered with a golden aura and then flew off the street and into his hands. Huh, second time's the charm i guess, now then i think it's about time i got my money back. Ren thought energetically.

Ren followed the thief until he turned down another alleyway, the alleyway was dark and small, littered with trash, muck, and grime, a sewer grate in the center of the lane collected the of flow of water from the main streets causing a fine mist of water to come floating up from the hole in the street. As the last light of the evening sun began to set it illuminated a stack of boxes in the corner, the stack of soggy old boxes covered in mold had clearly been there for weeks, the product of some villager clearly disposing of goods that they no longer needed, this was perfect for rens uses of course, the old moldy boxes would make the perfect cover for a hidden attacker, a fact that he expected would not be lost on the thief that had made an enemy of the young Genin, meanwhile the mist being thrown up from the grate would serve as perfect cover for his sneak attack, all he needed to do was thicken said mist and then the environment would be perfect, perfect for Ren to execute his revenge on this plebian thief who had so foolishly angered Ren. Woah, Ren thought to himself I can be just a tad arrogant sometimes, I should really try to keep my emotions in check, but I digress it's time I set up this little trap, now I don't have much time, and i've hardly used some of these techniques before, but my luck has been holding strong so far, with any luck that should be more than enough to help me get through this little endeavor, Ren chuckled at the foolishness of his train of thought. It was as Ren mused over these things that he began the preparations for his trap, as the thief began to walk down the long dark alleyway, Ren began to prepare himself to perform the array of techniques for his little trap, to begin with he performed the hand seal for the Hidden Mist Technique, as Ren's hands clasped together in the form of the tiger seal he allowed his chakra to begin circulating through his body, as he took advantage of his natural affinity towards water chakra and began converting his chakra nature to suit the technique that he was preparing to perform; then as ren’s chakra began to strengthen, he drew strength from his tenketsu points, allowing his chakra to seep from the tenketsu points on his body ren directed his chakra to flow down throughout the alleyway permeating the air until it came into contact with the thin sheen of mist that was swirling up from the water great.

Ren was no doubt in experienced in the use of the hidden mist technique, but as it happened Ren’s inexperience acted in his favour, at least this time. The hidden mist technique was one of the many well known techniques native to the village hidden in the mist, yes it had been many years since the technique had become widespread and its specifics had become known to the wider ninja population, but even so the technique was still far more prevalent in the village of its origin. No doubt as a result of its prevalence thieves, ninja, and indeed anyone with a modicum of combat experience or knowledge of the hidden mist would be on their guard if there was a sudden rise in the thickness of mist without any clear cause, of course the key point there is that there has to be a quick rise in the thickness of the mist, something noticeably derived from the deadly technique, however due to Ren’s inexperience he was being particularly cautious with his manipulation of the water vapour in the air. That is not to say that ren was struggling with the technique, on the contrary Ren’s control of his chakra and implementation of the technique was evidently flawless, he merely refrained from unnecessarily straining his luck and implemented the technique at a sub standard speed. By the time the thief had reached the middle of the laneway where the grate was the fog had slowly thickened until it had reached a point where there was very little visibility around him it was this that Ren took advantage of, he used his newly learnt mass shift technique to manipulate the pile of boxes currently lying in the corner of the alleyway. Ren knew the man had seen the boxes’ and hearing them move as he walked towards them, especially with such a dense mist surrounding him would undoubtedly put him on edge, this was exactly what Ren wanted; Ren followed this up by performing the Clone technique, a technique that he had learnt when he was still training to be a ninja, it wasn't a particularly flashy technique, nor was it a powerful technique, but it had its uses. You see Ren knew the Clone technique quite well, infact Ren knew the technique so well that he was more than aware of its weaknesses and flaws, the most fatal of which was that the clones could not cast a shadow, making it rather easy for an experienced shinobi to tell the difference between a clone and the original at a glance, but when implemented in a skillful manner it had a number of unique and interesting uses, ren infact was racing advantage of the clones inability to cast a shadow. As the fog from his earlier technique obscured vision, reducing figures to simply shadows in one's vision, by creating clones, even illusory clones, Ren was creating a circumstance where he was able to appear to be coming from multiple directions at once, moreover he would be appearing and disappearing without any indication of his actual location. This wouldn't hold up forever of course, eventually the thief would realise that he wasn't being hit by the clones, and when that happened Rens plan would be rendered useless, but that would take some time, and in that time ren would force the man to retreat to Ren’s actual location, with his back facing towards where he thought he was being attacked he would be blind to the peril he was putting himself in. Completing the technique two clones appeared before ren, the two clones leapt down into the alleyway and followed their makers plan, meanwhile ren slowly walked down the edge of the building and sat himself down in the corner of the alleyway from which the thief had entered, his shadow would be small and innocuous, easily masked by the surrounding litter.

Meanwhile Jonathan Strous strode down the alleyway, a cheerful tune whistling from his lips and a hearty smile on his face, he had had a tough day, but it was worth it, a small fortune in stolen goods was in his pockets, including a document that he had no doubt would fetch him an exorbitant fortune if he sold it to the right buyer, perhaps he could retire, purchase a liars ship in some foreign land and live there with a beautiful wife, aye 'twas a beautiful dream, but he would never live it out, Jonathan was an adventurous sort, of that he had no delusions, he might be entertained for a month or two but he would be back to his old ways in no time, regardless it was an enjoyable delusion for him to indulge himself in, and one that he had no qualms doing now that he felt that he was no longer at any risk. It was just as that thought crossed his mind that he heard a pebble clatter from the end of the alleyway… the alleyway was filled with a thick mist rising from the sewer grate that sat in the middle of the pathway, and yet Jonathan remembered that there was a stack of old boxes that sat there, he had infact used those boxes many a time to hide from pursuers, or to ambush unsuspecting prey, it would seem to him that he had infact relaxed too soon, for there was a very real threat to him in this alleyway. The shady man flicked his wrist as his trusty dagger flew out of his sleeve and into his waiting hand, he would not be defeated here, he advanced, neither altering his gait nor changing the tune he whistled so confidently, a learned ear might notice that he had faltered ever so slightly when he heard the pebble move, an even more well trained ear might notice a slight increase in the tempo of Jonathan’s tune, but then again a ear that well trained could likely tell that for all his composure Jonathan’s heart was beating faster than normal for a man strolling through the street, he was filled with adrenaline. As Jonathan approached the mound of moldy boxes wreathed in mist he prepared himself to confront whatever was before him, as he reached up with his knife preparing to strike down on whoever was hiding behind the boxes he saw a glimmer in the corner of his eye, and the sight of a ghost, surely that was what it was, for he had seen that face many times today, and he had been the one to kill that face, just a few hours ago. As these thoughts raced through the man's mind a glimmer of fear crossed his face, of course ren, sitting hunched over at the other corner of the street had no way of seeing this, yet he smiled anyway, he could smell it, the man’s fear, he reeked of it. “Nothing makes a man afraid more than death” that is the age old adage, but it’s false, death is terrifying, but to see something that cannot die, to have it appear before you time and again, mocking you, that… that is the source of true fear. Ren mused to himself, things were going exactly to plan, all he need do now is wait; the man had taken his bait, and though he does not yet realise it is already far too late for him, he has already fallen into ren’s trap.

The man looked into the face of death as the girl who he had killed hours before lept from the fog, barely disturbing it, almost like a ghost, nay indeed like a ghost for that is what jonathan saw, a wraith bent on vengeance for its death, the apparition launched itself towards him, scarcely missing as he leapt to the side in an attempt to avoid it, turning to look for it he saw no indication of the creature, and yet just as he thought that he saw a blade fly from the corner of his other eye, scarcely missing him again as he leapt back again instincts honed from years of thievery and plunder rendering him capable if reactions far above a normal human, even if he is currently in a land of fear, panic, and terror. This cycle repeated it time and again, over and over, albeit with minor variations, regardless jonathan soon found himself backing towards the alley’s entrance, a fact that he was not only aware of, but indeed it heavily influenced his fear, he knew the girl, the spirit, the ghost, wraith, monster, demon, whatever the thing was, it was in front of him, behind him was safety, and with those thoughts running through his mind jonathan turned in panic, launching himself forward towards the light of safety, or that's what it would have been had he not found himself face to face with the demonic visage of the source of all his terror. Jonathan felt his blood run cold as his face paled looking upon this monstrosity, that feminine, childlike face, smiling innocently at him made his fear infinitely more powerful, how could she stand there smiling whilst desiring his death so intently. Jonathan felt his hand quivering with fear as he started to reach up to that face, angelically perfect and yet the sheer force of personality behind it was monstrous. He opened his mouth to scream, yet he found himself choking on something, he retched as a watery red liquid spilled forth from his mouth, causing him to look down in shock and surprise, there protruding from his gut was the girl's hand, a jagged piece of glass extending forth puncturing his insides. All he could mutter was a quite “how…” before the girl pulled the makeshift blade from his gut and placing her hand upon his shoulders quietly and calmly severed his windpipe, jugular, and much of his brain stem all in one clean cut.

“Justice is revenge, revenge, justice, for what you do unto me i shall deliver ten fold unto you.” Ren said in a voice devoid of any form of emotion, his high pitched feminine voice making it sound all the more horrific.

Indeed the village of the mist was a place of monsters, where even a seemingly innocuous girl would render vengeance of the devil upon those who crossed her, it was here in this dark alleyway that jonathan v. straus had met his end, here on this day he would disappear from the world, not with a bang, nor any flashy parlor tricks that he had been known for, but with a
whimper, pleading for help from anyone who might save him, but all he saw was the shadow of a girl walking away suddenly obscured by a figure cloaked in black. He managed to choke out a garbled mess of sounds begging for help before he was engulfed in nothingness...

Ren strode through the streets of kirigakure, whistling to himself, a haunting tune, the tune of a dead man, he was happy, enjoying himself even, Kira had been silent for most of the day, it seemed that as time went on he found her withdrawing into herself more and more, perhaps the seal was taking its toll on her, no doubt he needed to get stronger, to find a way to save her before anything bad happened, but for the time being ren was happy, he’d just had his first taste of real blood, of real combat, and he was on a high, he could feel the adrenaline still pumping through his body, and he felt ready to take on the world ten fold. That was an exaggeration of course for all his confidence ren knew his limits, in his current state he couldn't possibly stand up to most ninja of this village, let alone stand against the entire world, but even so he was motivated to grow, to learn and get stronger, he felt the desire to reach a level of strength to rival the gods of this world, and show them that changing fate was possible. Ren began to skip down the street still whistling his dead man’s tune, today he would become strong, today he would make great strides on the path to save his sister, but before all that he needed coffee.

Ren sat back against the wall of his apartment, his head lying back against the wall as he took a deep drink from the steaming cup of coffee that he held in his hand, the rough concrete walling causing his skin to prickle in response to the chafing material. What a day ren thought to himself enjoying the feeling of the sweet warm milky beverage rolling down his dry throat, soothing the pain that he hadn't even realised was there until a moment ago when he began to drink the calming drink. It was caffeine of course and particularly strong caffeine drenched in so much sugar that it was practically a syrup so as to avoid the disgusting taste that came with coffee, even so the liquid brew would likely keep ren up through the night, an odd choice, and one that undoubtedly was not good for someone who had so narrowly avoided death just this day. Now that the adrenaline had faded ren could feel all the aches in his body, his muscles were crying out in pain, each individual nerve receptor throughout the young man’s body was singing out in pain, a billion tiny voices crying out for rest and reprieve from their constant incessant torture, but ren ignored them. his joints creaked and now that he was a little more clear headed he realised that he had taken far more damage over the day than he had realised his left shoulder felt like it had been dislocated, if he hadn't pumped himself full of so much anesthetic earlier then he would have no doubt collapsed in a heap well before this, Ren gently placed his cup of sugar on the ground beside him then Ren, his hands beginning to shake of their own accord as Ren lifted his hands together, feeling them quiver with the sheer quantity of accumulated wear and tear and clasped them together slowly allowing his chakra to flow through him and be shaped as his shaking hands formed the hand seals for the chakra anesthetic technique, Ren’s quivering hands first formed hare symbol, before slowly struggling into the ox sign and then finally collapsed into the monkey symbol as the force of pain finally began to become too much for Ren, flickering blue flames burst into life on the tips of Ren’s fingers as his hand dropped down to rest on his leg. Mustering the last of his waning willpower ren plunged his fingers into the flesh on his leg, a sharp feeling of intense pain running through his body as he brushed up against a nerve, small drops of blood beginning to well up from the wound, before the anesthetic began to flow through his body, numbing it once again to the pain. Ren pulled back his fingers from the holes now punctured in his legs, the wound now bleeding profusely, likely an artery or vein was punctured in the process of Ren’s injection. Ren sighed to himself, just my luck that I injure myself more trying to heal myself. He thought to himself before lifting his hands together once again, his hands now much more stable that they were numb to the pain that would otherwise be crippling them. Ren formed his hands together and shaped his fingers into the boar symbol, then shifting his fingers slightly he clasped them into the rat sign, before finally settling on the snake hand seal. Ren’s hands began to glow a dull green as his chakra began to pool in his palms, his medical ninjutsu beginning to become stronger with practice. Ren ran his hands slowly over his body, healing the minor cuts and scratches that were all over his body, before coming to focus on the indentations that he had left in his thigh, the thick deep wounds were still slowly seeping blood, the thin watery liquid weeping from the open wound. Ren placed his hands upon his thigh and began to let his chakra flow through the affected area, a cool calm feeling engulfing the area as it began to heal. Right before his eyes ren saw the holes in his flesh knitting together, the muscles reforming themselves right under his eyes before the flesh itself folded back into place, rendering his skin as good as new. It was at this point Ren remembered his broken rib from earlier on in the day, certainly the makeshift healing he had applied to it earlier on had made do so far, but that's not to say that he did not undoubtedly need to repair it to its fullest extent. Ren moved his hands back up to his torso, where he placed his hands upon his chest, gently probing his skin to search out the rib that he had fixed earlier. Upon finding the rib that he was searching for, Ren knew it to be the rib he was after since it still moved when he applied a tiny amount of force to it, Ren began his medical treatment, probing out with his chakra, in order to find the faults in the bone that he needed to fix, eventually he found the major source of his problems, his movements on the broken bone today seemed to have caused a long thin sliver of the bone to begin to fracture off from the rest of the bone and it wasn't something he felt comfortable dealing with, without any sort of guide or help, with this Ren forced himself to his feet, slowly sliding up the wall as he used it to support his weight. Ren sidled back into his apartment, leaving his steaming hot cup of liquid diabetes sitting out in the cold.

Ren walked into his apartment the door slamming shut behind him as he wandered over to his study, before slumping down onto the cheap chair he had sitting there, Ren closed his eyes for a moment before forcing himself awake, then leaning forward in his chair he opened the large encyclopedia that was sitting on his desk, The Jutsu Encyclopedia that Ren was using was a masterpiece, of that Ren was absolutely sure. The book, or at least the version that he had bought, contained a complete list of every commonly known technique known to the ninja of the world, moreover the author continued to update it annually and Ren had been lucky enough to find a copy of the latest version for sale in a pile of secondhand junk. The book listed not only every single technique, but also the many variations and sub-variations of the techniques, a training brief for new ninja’s on how exactly to begin learning the techniques, followed by an advanced brief describing the hypotheticals of chakra manipulation when applied to the technique as well as a vast array of terminology that Ren didn't even begin to understand, that being said, he did understand enough to be able to turn to the chapter on medical ninjutsu and begin to read through the information section, meticulously combing through the pages searching for the portion that described exactly how to use the technique on bones and more importantly how to treat each type of wound. Ren might not know how to perfectly heal his fractured bone on his own, but he was confident he could begin figuring it out once he read through this section.

Hmm okay let's see here, Bones a brief summary, okay that sounds like it’s about what I need Ren thought to himself as he began reading the oversized tome to himself. Bone is not a simple term, Bones within the human body are incredibly varied and unique and moreover they are composed in many different ways. Within the human body there exist four different types of bone long bone, short bone, flat bone and irregular bone. These terms are mostly intuitive, for any young individual attempting to identify a bone a simple rule of thumb is that if the shaft of the bone is longer than it is wide then it is a long bone, similarly if the shaft of the bone is not longer than it is wide then it is not a long bone, this does not however mean that it is always a short bone, short bones are predominantly square, or cuboidal in shape, and exist predominantly within the wrists and ankles of humans; Flat bones are just that flat, if a bone is a long flat surface, such as the roof of the skull, or a rib then it is classified as a flat bone, finally there are irregular bones, irregular bones are, unsurprisingly enough irregular, if a bone does not fit into any of the prior categories, or seems to fit into multiple categories then it is likely one of these bones, and the spine and the human jaw are the primary examples of these bones. Now for the purposes of healing these terms may seem irrelevant, but one must realise that to properly repair something, one must know how it works, moreover in this case one must understand that each of the types of bone have fundamental differences in how they act, and what they contain.

In addition to the different types of bone, there is also two different types of bone matter, it can be confusing but given time any aspiring medical ninja will find themselves understanding this intuitively. The two types of bone matter are compact bone, and spongy bone, Compact bone is dense, hard and rigid, this it the more common type of bone within the human body and is the type of bone primarily thought of when we use the term bone, Spongy bone on the other hand is a far more interesting type of bone, where compact bone is a literal mass of condensed matter, albeit with some small variations although that is discussed later, Spongy Bone is a complex latticework of bone matter, this lattice work provides the same function as compact bone only with the added advantage of being far lighter than compact bone, this being with the added tradeoff of being significantly weaker in comparison to compact bone. Most species of flying birds possess primarily, or exclusively spongy bone in order to help facilitate flight.

Within the center of the diaphysis the compact bone exists in a sort of cylindrical covering within which there lies a cavity termed the medullary cavity. But to explain more than these basics of bone, one must understand how cells and fibers within the body work, if you have not done so already then read those chapters now.
‘Oh just great, more books to read’ Ren thought to himself before skipping ahead past that section of the book, ‘If it turns out to be Important i can always come back to it’

The best example to describe how the typical bone, that a medical ninja will be dealing with, acts is to take a femur, the thigh bone, and examine the inner workings of the bone. The outside shaft of a femur is strong and rigid, this section, termed the diaphysis, is composed of compact bone, with a ‘hollow’ section inside, called the medullary cavity, within this cavity is stored yellow bone marrow that contains storage of energy for the human body. Each end of the femur, is termed the epiphysis, and they are composed of spongy bone and it is within this bone that red bone marrow resides, the red bone marrow is essentially premature blood cells for use within the body. When performing medical ninjutsu upon a section of bone it is important to understand what type of bone you are working with, how that type of bone functions. If a ninja were to example stimulate the production of condensed bone at the epiphysis of a bone then the section of bone would begin to lose much of its flexibility, alternatively if a medical ninja were to stimulate the growth of spongy bone within the diaphysis then the bone would be significantly weaker than before and would infact find itself, in the case of bones such as the legs and pelvis which support the majority of the body’s weight, breaking simply from day to day stress. If the formation of bone is stimulated in the hollow sections of bone then even worse things can happen, the formation of bone within the medullary cavity would result in a drastic reduction in the amount of energy the body is able to store, and if you remove the bones ability to produce blood cells then the results will be anemia and potentially death. When healing the bone, it is always better to be safe than sorry

Fri Jul 01, 2016 1:08 am

The moonlight that shone through the apartment's window waned as the light of the sun began to flow into the room, the scent of burnt wax and smoke flowed through the room from the many candles that littered Ren’s desk. As the sun shone through the window it fell upon the sleeping body of a young man who had passed out midway through the night from exhaustion, the anesthetic in his bloodstream was wearing off now and although he was asleep small grimaces of pain still flickered across his face in reply to the things going on in his body, whilst his muscles and ligaments, he had healed throughout the night, the healing of his rib was something he hadn't managed to do, all the same he had managed to gather much knowledge of both the human body and medical ninjutsu techniques, the boy had even come up with a few tricks and ideas that he might be able to use in the future, of course the boy was far from skilled enough to start developing his own techniques at this stage, but it was a sign of his keen intellect that he was able to see ways to use his knowledge that were unexpectedly unique. As the sun rose to about midday Ren awoke from his slumber, with another grimace the boy shifted in his sleep, shifted in his sleep right off the chair he was supported on and fell flat on the floor, fortunately for him, he fell on the side of his body that wasn't composed of a broken and poorly healing rib, all the same, the combination of the sensation of falling, the force of hitting the floor, and the resulting pulsations of pain flowing through his body, was more than enough to wake Ren from his short reprieve. Grumbling and groaning in pain the young Ninja rolled onto his back before speaking aloud to himself “ugh, I feel like death, what time is it?” turning his head to the window he gauged the time from the sun, his hooded eyes straining against the sunlight. Groaning again Ren muttered to himself, “ugh it's barely dawn, I don't wanna get up yet” closing his eyes again for a moment the young boy attempted to collect himself, a failed attempt of course, as anyone who’s found themselves closing their eyes just after waking up will know, the young boy began to drift back off to sleep before Ren began to remember who he was and what had happened yesterday, In an instant the boy sat up with the full force of his trained body, before feeling the forces acting upon his body. The boy groaned for the third time that morning, though it was not the last time, it was perhaps the most justified, “Ahhh, son of a… my ribs feel like they're on fire!” he muttered, pressing a hand against his side. Ren clasped his hands together, smirking to himself with a sense of black humor “bloody oath, there's no denying I’ve got plenty of use out of this jutsu, but i can't help but feel that I’m becoming a bit of a junkie.” with that smirk on his face Ren formed the hand seals for the Chakra Anesthetic technique and, the blue flames flickering into life on his five finger tips, plunged his hands into his legs once more. Feeling the chakra synthesized anesthetic dispersing through his body once more Ren smiled with a relaxed sigh before clasping his hands together and following up his anesthetic technique with traditional medical ninjutsu, forming the requisite hand seals, ren held his hands over the wound on his leg and began reknitting his flesh, the cool glow from his hands flowing over his torn skin. With a long drawn out sigh Ren stood up from his impromptu choice of bedding and wandered over to his kitchen, he felt atrocious but he still felt the fire in his chest, the drive to get stronger, to protect himself and others from those who would break the laws of this world. Clasping his hands together he performed the mass shift technique, his hands flowing into a blur as he began to understand the technique better, then opening his pantry with the technique, the man grabbed a pair of eggs, catching them as they flew towards him. Ren placed them on the bench, and then lit the flames of the grill and mass shifted the frying pan from its spot hanging on the wall, into his hand, and placed it on the open flame. Ren cracked the eggs on the pan, and began preparing a nice healthy breakfast of eggs for himself while he pondered exactly what to do on this atrocious morning. Well first of all, I’ll need to do something about this blasted Rib, it's getting to be a burden. I think I’ve learnt enough from the manual to heal my ribs proper with a bit of preparation, but after that I should get back to studying, I could really use some offensive techniques and if i Remember correctly Namiko left a few scrolls on offensive fuinjutsu in that pile of research she left me, ill have a look through them and see what useful things I can find. Blowing out the flame and leaving his breakfast to simmer Ren wandered over to the desk, filled with scrolls on various techniques and seals, and dominated by a selection of tomes, the most notable of which is the jutsu encyclopedia that ren had added to the collection himself, and pulled out a scroll at random. Sliding the scroll out of the ribbon that was keeping it closed, Ren rolled the scroll open and read the title, “Unique and memorable uses of Fuinjutsu, and the dark river breaking seal: a thesis on the novelty and potential applications of chakra rebounding in chakra structures.” Ren smiled at the name, ‘trust namiko to have a paper with such a pretentious title’ he thought; even so Ren took the scroll over with him to his kitchen and began reading it as he set the table for breakfast.

Unique and memorable uses of Fuinjutsu, and the dark river breaking seal: a thesis on the novelty and potential applications of chakra rebounding in chakra formule structures

Since its conception many years ago Fuinjutsu, the art of compressing chakra into concise predefined structures that retain any result and effects previously only possible through active chakra nature manipulation and shape manipulation. Despite these advantages the art of fuinjutsu is still an art that is barely understood and highly unused compared to the arts of ninjutsu and genjutsu, which are the mainstream of ninja arts.

Pausing for a moment ren put the scroll down, he'd finished setting the table and now was busy getting his food and a morning coffee ready, pouring a pot of boiled water into the mix of powdered instant caffeine. Ren sniffed the noxious brew before screwing his nose up at the smell and wandering over to his dining table, breakfast and coffee in hand; as he sat down he returned to his morning studies
The perfect example of fuinjutsu flexibility is the dark river breaking seal, a regular sealing formula consists of multiple complexes used to shape chakra into a predefined effect, however the dark river breaking seal consists of a pattern of three complexes. The first complex takes chakra fed into it and converts this chakra into the chakra required for the seal to efficiently manage it, before it then passes the chakra into the second complex at a rate that the deal is capable of containing. The second complex then accepts the chakra from the first complex and alters its shape to a small angled ball; at this point the chakra has been converted into what effectively amounts to a ball of force, and this ball of force can then be passed onto the third and final complex, the third complex, unlike the first two is a section of the formula that is deliberately designed to be slightly weaker than the previous two complexes. When chakra is fed into the third complex from the previous two complexes it fills up the third complex at a rate greater than the complex can contain, and this in turn causes the Weak point of the seal to overflow with chakra that is then expelled from the seal with potentially lethal force.

The initial form of the dark river breaking seal was only capable of expelling a single blast of chakra, however ingenious advancements have over time accumulated within the sealing formula as it is passed from mentor to student, the formula now includes a self-relocating complex that collects excess chakra from the expulsion in the third complex, that are too minute to be of practical use in combat, and uses these chakra fragments to repair the damage to the third complex and allow it to be reused; the chakra capacity of the second complex has also seen augmentation over time, allowing it to hold a greater store of chakra than the initial formula called for, but also allowing for the formation of additional bolts of chakra at a far lower cost in energy than is required to complete the circuit multiple individual times. Finally the a recent modification to the self replication complex has multiple weak points generated in sections along the third complex, which are then reinforced by small fluctuations in chakra, this allows for the chakra bolts to be fired at different angles rather than forcing the user to manually orient the seal to a suitable position.

Ren stopped reading at this point, or rather he changed from reading to coughing and gasping for air in disgust. Ren had just taken his first sip of the coffee he had made minutes ago, the boiling hot brew had cooled just enough for him to taste it, and the taste was atrocious. Ren legitimately considered the fact that he may very well have been poisoned before putting a hold on the idea and rushing to the sink in an attempt to drown out the flavour of the noxious concoction with an endless flow of water. Ren slid his face under the sink’s tap and turned it on, gulping down comically large amounts of water; as the taste of ‘coffee’ finally began to fade from his tastebuds Ren turned off the tap and, sliding out from under the sink, reached over into his pantry where he pulled out a small tub of sugar; opening the tub ren looked down in disappointment, the tub was only about half full. Sighing Ren sidled back over to his breakfast before picking up his coffee and dumping the entirety of the sugar container into his drink, swirling it a few times Ren took another sip, grimacing at the smell once again, although the taste was now at least tolerable. Having dealt with his coffee issues, Ren returned to reading the paper he’d selected from Namiko’s collection.

The dark river breaking seal is a highly versatile and heavily developed seal, but it is also one that is easy to master once one understands how it works. The dark river breaking seal as mentioned above utilises a number of sealing complexes to achieve its goal, and these complexes are all rather basic and this, in conjunction with its lack of need for hand seals or complex chakra manipulation in the middle of combat, makes for an extremely useful technique for genin and other fledgling ninja.

Having read through the scroll ren glanced down at the base of the page, a page number and reference number indicating that this scroll had been transcribed from a book of the same title, in the bottom corner namiko’s signature, written in the corner along with the line For my beloved apprentice. Ren smiled at the thought that his mentor had had the foresight to prepare a selection of training materials for him, a tear forming silently in his eye before trickling down his face and falling to the floor. Ren shook himself out of his moment of nostalgia, before allowing the fires of determination that had seized him the night before to reappear in him. Ren wandered over to his small study and began searching through them for more scrolls on useful techniques, he wanted to become a master of fuinjutsu, he wanted to finish what namiko started, and he wanted to save his friend, his sister, Kira who had been oddly quiet for the past few days, he had reached out to her with his mind a few times now, and often he found her mind sleeping, he was concerned for her, and he was afraid, afraid that the improper seal that was keeping her alive might be failing; all the more reason for him to study harder and faster. For the time being however Ren’s goal was not as grand as merely becoming a master of fuinjutsu, nor as noble as saving the life of his adopted sister, Rens goal, at least in the short term was to learn enough to survive, he’d been almost killed by a street thug, and on top of that the blood games, the Chunnin exams, were coming up, there is now way that he’d be able to survive if the last one was anything to go by. Having gathered up all the scrolls he needed Ren placed them together in a pile and wandered over to his closet, pulling a backpack from the wardrobe Ren carefully strapped the scrolls together and hung them from the outside of the bag.

Then sitting down in a chair Ren put his recent research into medical ninjutsu to the test, clasping his hands together and forming the requisite hand seals Ren activated the technique and placing his hands upon his chest, allowed his chakra to flow through his body into his Ribs, and then used his chakra to stimulate the bones to reknit themselves to the way they would naturally. Ren sat up, sliding himself from the table and standing up, stretching his muscles he began to test his handiwork, experimenting with his range of movement and gently prodding his ribs. Somewhat surprisingly to him they were fine, smiling a little he stood up and wandered over to his, grabbing some parchment and a quill he began writing a note for his landlady, telling her he would be gone for a few days, before placing it on his table with the weeks rent. Ren sighed as he looked in his wallet, nearly empty again he thought, I guess it's almost time to go run another gauntlet of missions, but I’ll worry about that later. Then grabbing his things and slinging them across his back Ren stepped out his door, he had planned to take a short trip into the forest, where he could train and prepare himself, on top of everything else that had happened the Chunin exams were coming up and recent events had made it bleedingly obvious to him that he was nowhere near ready to deal with the threats of that endeavour.

Ren stepped out onto the balcony connecting his small apartment complex together and, locking the door behind him, walked down the steps to the ground floor, a stern yet determined look on his face. Ren headed of towards his goal, Forrest island, the landmass that was largely undeveloped in contrast to the rest of Kirigakure’s island chain. Ren walked pointedly through the village, past the market filled with street vendors and other haggling merchants, and past the alleyway where he’d been injured the day before. Ren had built a bridge to the island for one of his missions only a few days before, the bridge had been repaired a multitude of times since it was first constructed, and yet it always seemed to be broken again within a few months; even so it came as a surprise to Ren when he reached the edge of the village and came to the site of his handiwork, only to find the bridge that he had so painstakingly constructed, broken, rent in two, the broken fragments scorched as if it had been walked upon by some vengeful creature of monstrous power, imbued with the energy of fire and death around the remains of the bridge was a camp, a small group of village genin working together to repair the bridge once again. This is ridiculous Ren thought to himself, I just repaired this a few days ago and its broken again already, the mizukage really should do something about this. But despite those thoughts Ren continued on his way walking towards the broken crossing until he was standing just at the edge of what remained of the bridge. One of the genin raised their hand in greeting and began to call out to him that the bridge was out, but ren already knew this, he could see it, not that he cared, he had already decided that he would be training in the woods for the next few days and nothing as simple as a broken bridge would keep him from achieving that goal. Ren took out his canteen from its spot hanging on his backpack and, unscrewing the lid, threw the cantina over the gap, the water from it spilling out in an arc as it reached the other side of the gap. As it did so Ren pushed his feet off from the bridge and performed the water replacement technique, swapping his place with the water that came flooding out from the cantina and came landing on his feet at the other edge of the crossing, catching the falling cantina in his hands as he came, Ren hefted it assessing its weight; he’d used up a little bit of water, but that wouldn't be too much trouble, he was sure he could set up camp somewhere with a pond or stream, and even if he couldn’t running out of water was rarely a problem for a ninja of the water element. If worse came to worse Ren was confident that he would be able to fill up his cantina with a handful of techniques. Ren heard the young genin behind him’s warning abruptly cut short. Ren chuckled to himself, It must have been a bit of a surprise to the young boy, he wasn’t dressed in his ninja garb and no doubt the lad had thought Ren was a villager. It was at this point that Ren heard one of the other voices call out “Be careful miss, there have been strange things going on in that forest of late.” Ren’s jovial mood turned dark in an instant, the young man storming off into the forest in a rage. His finely tuned senses picked up the boy asking one of his friends if it was something he said, but Ren scarcely registered as he marched furiously into the forest.

It was a few hours of mindlessly trudging through the forest that Ren finally calmed down enough to think about where he was going, setting up a camp would be his first order of business, but to do that he needed to find a clearing, preferably one near a source of water and food. With that goal in mind Ren set off, first leaping onto one of the branches of the great oak trees that stood all around him, and then propelling himself up higher and higher into the tree, until he reached the treetops.

It was a beautiful view that was waiting for him when he reached that spot, Ren had inadvertently picked the tallest tree in the area. Ren could see for miles, the salty sea air blowing in from the coastline behind him, and in front of him a sea of lush verdant greenery as far as the eye could see. Slight gaps in the greenery speckled throughout Ren's field of view indicated clearings, but one landmark in particular caught Ren's eye, a large waterfall stood near the centre of the island, water plummeting down below the tree line into what Ren could only assume to be the start of a river. With some renewed vigour and a deep breath to help him forget about the recent incident, Ren gathered his chakra into his feet and kept from the treetop, falling a few meters until he landed onto the top of one of the surrounding trees, the tip of the tree beginning to bend under Ren’s weight before Ren adjusted his chakra and the tree began to right itself again. Ren continued leaping from tree to tree, heading towards his goal, and using the opportunity to practice his chakra control at the same time. Ren made a game of it, laughing joyously with his melodious voice echoing throughout the forest below. It was not till an hour later that Ren reached the waterfall and slid now the tree landing on his feet the cheering was oddly quiet, where as before the forest was filled with the sounds of life, birds chirping to each other and squirrels skittering along the ground looking for food. But here there was distinctly little noise apart from the sound of the waterfall pouring over the cliff and into the crystalline lake that stood below it, and even that sound seemed muffled and faint. This was perfect for ren, the tranquil environment was perfect for study. Ren spent the rest of the day setting up his campsite and preparing dinner for himself before settling down to read one of the scrolls that he had brought with him.

WC: 11809
Claiming:
Mass Shift (1000)
Flicker Movement (1000)
Medical Ninjutsu E&C Rank (500 & 2000)
Chakra Anesthetic (1000)
Hidden Mist (500)
Dark River Breaking Seal (2250)
59 Stat Points.

Fri Jul 01, 2016 1:54 am

Approved <3